When George Bush was President, there were times when it was hard to tell some Republicans from their Democrat counterparts. They were loose with the purse strings and some were even foolish enough to believe that they could curry favor with unions by voting to effectively eliminate secret-ballot elections.

Despite the fact that EFCA was designed to defeat the right forever, in 2007, the hallucinogenically-named Employee Free Choice Act (aka Card Check) passed the U.S. House of Representatives. It did so with some Republicans voting for the bill—Republicans like Thaddeus McCotter [R-MI].

In 2007, when McCotter voted to effectively strip employees’ right to a secret ballot, he was confronted by Michigan View writer Manny Lopez, who wrote:

“Livonia Congressman Thaddeus McCotter gets a bit testy when asked why he voted with the labor movement earlier this month:

“Actually, testy doesn’t quite do it justice. The Wayne County Republican was slightly hostile, certainly annoyed and mighty defensive when I asked him on Friday why he voted for the so-called ‘Employee Free Choice Act. . . . I can’t tell you succinctly why Republican McCotter voted for the anti-business legislation. He used a lot of $10 words when we talked, and he pontificated repeatedly about free association, imperatives and other mumbo-jumbo.”

Given that the vote took place in 2007 and most of those who voted for EFCA (Democrat and Republican alike) knew that the job-killing legislation had virtually no chance of being signed into law under GWB, some Republicans felt “safe” casting their votes on behalf of union bosses.

Now, though, the political climate has changed dramatically and, apparently, so has Thaddeus McCotter’s view on EFCA.

U.S. Rep. Thaddeus McCotter told me Friday his vote for union payoff legislation was a mistake and that if he were going to vote on “card check” legislation again, he would vote no.

“It was all because of Wisconsin,” he said in reference to what prompted him to change his mind about supporting legislation that would allow unions to forgo that pesky little detail called democracy (card check allows unions to be established in a work place with signatures on cards instead of secret ballot elections). “As a Federalist, what happened in Wisconsin made me realize that EFCA (the Employee Free Choice Act) was something that should be decided on the state level.”

Indeed.

McCotter said he’d planned to discuss this issue, among others, soon because he’s still mulling a presidential bid and knew a Republican Congressman’s support for far-left proposals would raise eyebrows.

Yes, you read that right: Despite all of his union donations, his support sponsorship of the union pension bailout (McCotter apparently supports taxpayers bailing out union pensions too), as well as his former support of the union bailout bill known as EFCA, Thaddeus McCotter is considering a run for President—as a Republican.

Yet, it was Wisconsin(!) that changed his mind about taking secret-ballot elections away….Except he’s not really against taking away the secret ballot.

He just thinks it should be decided by the states.

Sort of like letting some states choose their representatives in Congress by secret ballot, while others do it by signature when the SEIU shows up at their homes. Is that right, Thad?

Thanks, but no thanks.

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“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

Cross-posted.